I was reading the Los Angeles Times earlier and came across an article about Gary Locke’s nomination as ambassador to China and the feelings of the Chinese toward a Chinese American like Locke. It struck a nerve with me and got me thinking: Do Asians — in Asia — hate Asian Americans?

The article, “Ambassador nominee raises strong emotions in China,” by Barbara Demick of the Los Angeles Times states:

But a deep antagonism is evident in a profusion of less-than-diplomatic commentary on the Internet, a venue where Chinese feel free to vent.

“A fake foreign devil who cannot even speak Chinese,” wrote one anonymous contributor to an Internet forum on public affairs.

“I don’t like this guy who has forgotten his ancestors,” wrote someone in Dalian on a popular news site, and someone in Sichuan piped in, “If he wanted to be Chinese, he wouldn’t live in America.”

Some Chinese call the 61-year-old Commerce secretary a “traitor” and resort to ethnic slurs to disparage his being born and raised in the United States.

As a Japanese American, I get this. I’ve never felt welcome in Japan. I remember going there as a child and hoping they’d accept me but finding out rather quickly that they did not. The surprise turned out to be the disdain they felt toward me – as though I were somehow less than them. Surprisingly, many of the non-Japanese tourists were actually treated better than me!

Is it a language thing? Is it because Asians think Asian Americans somehow sold out (our people, history, culture)?

In response to the former, even if we are proficient at our ancestor’s language, it could never be on par with those who still live there. Personally, I had a speech impediment as a child and was not allowed to learn Japanese until I learned English! The last time I was in Japan, a person shook her head at me and said that my Japanese was “bad” and “what a shame it was.” She never bothered to ask why I couldn’t speak.

In response to the later question, as much as we want or try, we are American. When going back to Japan, it is very clear that I usually share more in common with Caucasians from America than I do with the Japanese living in Japan – other than of course the way we look. I don’t think it is a matter of selling out or losing my culture but just the reality of living in America all my life.

However, what people from Asia don’t see is that many Asians who live in America have created a unique culture that reflects the reality of who they are: part Asian and part American. An easy example of this is eating rice at Thanksgiving or Spam musubi in the Japanese American community.

Maybe what hurts most about this is that a part of me wants acceptance from the people where my ancestors came from, but this could only come when they accept that we are not and cannot be like them. We are different but similar. This is neither a good thing nor a bad thing. It is just the reality of the way things are.

At the OP: You are not alone. I've heard this same story from many of my asian friends after visiting the country of their ethnic origin. One friend of mine of American-Malaysian descent experienced this in Japan when people would hear his American accent and assume he was Japanese-American. He thought it was funny how they would change their attitude when he let them know his ethnicity was actually Malaysian. It became like a game for him during his stay there.

It is very unfair and stupid that someone would be considered a "traitor" just for being born in a different country. It's not like they had any choice in the matter. However, there are stupid people everywhere. This form of racism is especially stupid IMO.

Culture. That's all there is to it. Foreigners are foreigners, you weren't born and raised there, so you won't be viewed as one of them. Have you seen the way people all over the world view Americans? There's no way you can expect to be treated like one of them in a place like Japan coming from here.

Hate? Maybe some do. But I guess it's rather this distrust towards foreigners that prevails in general, unless they've got a shitload of cash hanging out of their back pocket, foreigners are viewed as 'intruders' -- a natural first reaction.
It's kind of unrealistic to think that sharing the same typical physiognomical features of an ethnicum makes you into one of 'them'. The discrepance becomes even bigger when it turns out that you don't even master the tongue. Now that would even repel the French. *cough* But when you look, walk, and talk like one of them, and on top of that are financially well off then your chances of getting integrated are a lot bigger.

As a matter of fact, it's not just an East of West issue, but also a South of North issue, more precisely, the African continent has so many ethnic groups and they do actually recognise who is from what group -- and then you got Black Americans who come back from there very disappointed as they found out that their ancestral country isn't emitting those 'home' vibes they thought it would.

Well if u dont wanna feel like a freak u gotta adapt....regardless of your silly beliefs....its a matter of social comfort......
no matter how much we wanna hate on Americans....they are the ones that have made the biggest effort to embrace every culture of the world ....... luckily for me i'm not American so i just worry about dealing wit 1 or 2 ethnicitys

Oh, I almost started to laugh when my eyes reached 'cosmopolitan'. I guess US efforts such as invading places and destroying lives at random makes the whole American dream and propaganda about freedom, and equal rights not only a total laughingstock, but also very uncosmopolitan.

Oh, I almost started to laugh when my eyes reached 'cosmopolitan'. I guess US efforts such as invading places and destroying lives at random makes the whole American dream and propaganda about freedom, and equal rights not only a total laughingstock, but also very uncosmopolitan.